Nilex

Yeah me returning after 20 years, being clueless and right in the hornet nest didn't help. I just grind it out and got lucky. Read about the Toxin C before making this topic but situation didn't get desperate enough to switch from Devastators. And from quick glance I don't remember even having it available, only B. Would require some more investigating but I just wanted to get it over with ASAP! Remember, completing the objectives wasn't an issue, it was doing it without anyone getting injured (even loss of shields was unacceptable - looks too crappy in the UI ). Thank you both for advice!

LOL OK... Nevermind. After some tries I got lucky with the North spawn (safest in my experience) and Aliens arrived in manageable fashion. So I KILLED EM ALL! Time to finally watch my well deserved end animation for the first time ever. Who said patience doesn't pay off? Btw, seems getting hit by enemy fire lights your soldiers for Aliens from across the map. Then they fire and chain reaction starts... The trick was not getting spotted and quickly kill those that try come near. Move fast but in short intervals and wait. Stay further away from corner Alien spawn tubes so they can't instantly spot you. Case closed (after 22 years)

I basically stopped playing in 1998 just after entering Alien dimension. Returned in 2005 and made short work of the Aliens, until I quit again because the final mission was a bit too much to handle. So today at my third attempt (with same saves I've been carrying this whole time) all my wisdom accumulated of the years still proves insufficient to beat the last building. There is a catch though, I probably could beat it - I just don't want ANY injuries... Unacceptable. My soldiers (20) all have Disruptor Armor with Marsec torso (flying), Devastators, Cloak and 2x Shield. Four guys have Dimension Missile Launcher instead Devastator. Total cookie cutter, no brain cells required, killer squad - until this last mission. The problem is on the open fields Aliens eventually just spam Dimension Missiles beyond visual range (despite cloak) and I can go F myself. Getting mind controlled don't help either. Feel totally powerless. Turn based is even worse. Game is beaten in every other way, money is non-issue, everything is researched, etc. Is there a way to cheese through this? Specialized gear perhaps? Go wild, Thanks. SAVEGAME.zip

I'm not the one to quote own posts but... the unthinkable finally happened. Downed Aquatoid occupied Dreadnought, on a common Floating Base Attack mission - all spawned outside the damned USO. Praise the Lord, Alleluia. GAME_8.zip

I ended up 'killing' it using X-Com Hack. Simply a matter of selecting it from a list and changing its health value (can be used for capture too). Can also 'kill all' without XCU's side effect of destroying equipment. Pretty neat program that also works in Win7 without issues. Only found out about the feature because its "reveal map" function does only that but sadly leaves aliens hidden. Btw, the walls in the screeny were indestructible with the tools I had/found. So that also contributed to me digging deeper in hack features. Level above shown room has a metal grate as the floor (bow of the ship), but it too is indestructible, and opaque (contrary to visual appearance). Looks like a lift down to 2nd stage so it's funny it's inaccessible. Only 'legit' way in I guess would may be with Disruptors, hacked to work on land. It was my first Mixed Crew ship so I found both Calcinite (2nd stage) and Triscenes. And yet two more weird things happened. It's like the game never stops trowing surprises at me. Captured Triscene from 1st ship stage transferred over to 2nd stage, resulting in 2 live ones. Only I expected dead+live combo. Always thought all 1st stage (of any kind) captures convert to corpses by the end. Already researched Calcinite corpse earlier in playthrough (back in 2012... via infamous Medic) apparently permanently locking myself out of Vibro Blade tree. But when I came back to base I was able to research another one, brought from the ship. It may have been TFTDextender at work though, as it always allows duplicate live alien research (to avoid related bugs) with possible addition of Calcinite corpses. Oh and as soon as I bashed the AI in previous post, in the very next downed USO mission, a Tasoth used Disruptor with multiple waypoints on me for the first time ever. In over 200 battles I have not seen this... When they did use it, it was always like a regular single waypoint 'bullet'. Usually missing and/or suiciding themselves (and their comrades). Yeah safe to say, we had ups and downs this game and me. Thanks for being a pal throughout my adventures m9m. * * * XCU substantially expanded my beliefs about what could be done using BAT files. By far most complex install process of any similar I saw. Surprised I never once broke an install, lol. But anyway, it wasn't XCU's fault - only used it on a save folder because I knew it can reveal those pesky hidden aliens. I play using TFTDextender but it can't be at fault either. I write it up to plain 'ol bugs we all can't live without.

Starting to hate this game, what a mess lol. For now I'll finish the bugger with Sherlock's stuff but I'll never play vanilla again. Ever. One large hurdle stopping me before was giving up on original AI by playing with OpenXcom but it finally dawned on me OG AI sucks beyond repair. Just gonna make a note to my future self to prepare for possible gameplay shocks in OXC when game's internal systems start behaving as intended. Here is another gem: #11 Impossible Xarquid (revealed via XcomUtil using "vis" parametar) Spent probably 90 minutes searching him before giving up and re-learning how to use XCU again to reveal map. Took 5 installs with different setup each time before program stopped complaining about not wanting to execute reveal command. Writing this I see X-Com Hack, which I've been using all along, has the same damn feature. FML. Fingers crossed that salvaged alien grenades (only explosives on the map) will be able to tear down that wall. GAME_6.zip Also interesting fact: in both playthroughs and around 20 ships done, not one was of the "cargo" type (only recently I became aware it even existed). From what I've gathered it's the easier type. Of course it is.

Save shows module has been empty for the entire mission. Either its south placement overruled spawn rules or Sherlock's changes I've been using affected it indirectly, or a mix of both. Either way I ain't complaining - one less room to worry about!

Hm, you don't see the attachment or is something wrong with the the save itself? Looks normal on my end.

In my just completed colony mission, command module spawned just south of the magic line, completely vacant. Attached save shows my boys closing in from the north but killing that one last Lobbie in the far west ends the mission. I'm currently doing another abandoned TFTD playthrough but in my old one - 3rd T'leth stage, south section was too completely devoid of alien life. Went hand in hand with forbidden save feature (wtf lol, didn't expect that). * * * On another note, doing all this UFO/TFTD things lately somehow sparked desire to try out OCX with FMP/X-Files/Piratez mods. Not only have I avoided practically all kinds of community mods in all games my whole life, but instead of getting saturated and bored of classic XCOM gameplay (doing only that for last 2.5 months), I find myself somehow wanting even more... But not before wrapping up yet another abandoned playthrough, Apocalypse this time, played and quit all the way back in 1998. I see m9m is pretty active on that forum too. Too bad I only got a couple of alien buildings left to clear so I won't get to use all the juicy info. GAME_7.zip

When doing 8th Alien Colony I finally adapted and started using 2nd stage spawn error to my advantage simply by exploring only 3 northern-most rows. Cannot even begin to explain how much less headaches I got from then on. It's a feature as far I am concerned! Hope it remains like that in OpenXcom next time I get around to TFTD. As I'm doing last couple of T'leth levels it's time to show last few oddities from my travels: #7 Unconcious Tasoth in equip screen Pretty weird when I first saw it, didn't know what to expect when starting the mission. Happened only two times in just over 200 missions. Body was nowhere to be found after I started the mission (regular downed USO type). Dunno what to make of it. Directed by Ridley Scott perhaps? #8 11 simultaneous crash sites (result of Colony Expansion and Alien Infiltration posses, bottom ones are actually 3 X) #9 Alien Base in the Arctic (many miles from nearest sea, the real reason ice is melting) #10 Two Alien Bases off Scandinavia Sugar for last. #9 was their 12th base, but I never discovered 11th (nor was I aware of it). Not until I took a look at the "graphs" (after long time not looking) did I, horrified, realize my mistake. Scandinavia is set to seize funding but I'm about to destroy L'leth 12 hours before they dare to do so. Lol, just saw #8 again and made the connection... It sure was a rough month.

Nothing gets past you, good catches. Updated OP. I just got two observations. In countless landing attempts against my bases it only ever took 4 PWT hits to destroy any USO (always Dreadnought?) sometimes only 3 hits. Setup is 2 PWTs + Bombardment Shield. With 80% hit rate and easy re-loads it's essentially air tight and successful deterrent, if one let's it come to that of course. I normally obliterate everything except USOs that look like they may land on seabed, for Zrbite. In previous tests though when I rushed through whole months, many attacks came but at the worst the 4th PWT hit always resulted in USO destruction. Is maybe TFTDextender responsible for increased efficiency? It's weird seeing UFOpeadia too being so adamant, talking about a dozen PWTs being air tight. Well ok, perhaps save-scumming is not considered kosher. The other one is more general, about Superhuman. With increased enemy spawns and large units spawning last, don't that further decrease chances of seeing large units on battlefield? Despite them having increased spawns. Not that I intend ever playing on SH (hate cheap higher difficulty achieved via ever more bullet-sponges).

Okay, sharpened my scaplels and performed open-brain surgery on the OP. Hope the patient lives. Geez what a day. If you spot a mistake please don't shy away of letting me know.

Nearly there, just a few more. Starting to sound like inspector Columbo... Just means every Mixed Crew terror is worth exploring for Calcinite / Triscene because so called "Type II" with Lobsters only happen in T'leth, which is too late to be relevant for our topic. It spares the player from reloads if downed MC USO/terror site houses Lobsters because that can't happen? Aha so getting Aquatoids to attack your base ensures Calcinite encounter as well (behaves as Aquatoid Port/Island terror in terms of alien crew)? 3a. By "some maps" you mean MC Shipping lane map has multiple variations regarding large unit spawns? Dictated by where regular terrorist units get placed before "being converted" to Triscene if that makes sense. Bottom line is it reduces overall Triscene spawn chances, correct? If you can remember, tell me how many Triscenes on average have you encountered on Shipping lanes (with exclusively MC crew). If 2 or more per Ship, that's pretty good even for Superhuman. 3b. April regarding Ships yes, ups. Mixed Crew on land (Calc/Tris source) is what I think of every time I say MC so yeah. For Triscenes it's April at earliest. Excuse me if it appears I drag this on forever... I just hope to collect and dump all the needed info to the OP and edit the fker once and for all. So it awaits my return in 15-20 years when I'll probably play TFTD again, lol. Assuming the server still breathes (and me for that matter). Any stranglers happening to pass by and making use of it is just a cool bonus. I commend your contribution and patience!

You clearly know much more than I do, but let's try keeping it simple so I don't get lost. If I got it right: Yes. Yes for Port/Island terror, inspection required for Shipping lanes (low overall chance, high effort, more under 3.). Provoking Mixed Crew USO to attack your base may yield both Calcinite and/or Triscene. Low overall chance and only possible from July onward. So Mixed Crew do occur on Shipping lanes! 75% chance then applies to Triscene as well I presume. But multiplying with low chance of MC occurring in the first place (75% * 20%) and considerable effort needed to inspect the ship throws reliability outta window. Most annoying part seems to be discerning between Tasoth or MC alien composition. Only possible from July onward too or sooner? Or it simply uses July-Sep table even if it happens in Feb? Earliest possible Mixed Crew? Because no visible USO involved (happens outta thin air). Covered in 3. My battleship test confirmed shooting down 1st one only delayed 2nd, by roughly four days. I believe this applies even to two Escorts that appear earlier. So letting first three ships unharmed may significantly speed up appearance of the fourth one which initiates Port/Island terror. Likely reason I've seen widely different dates of such terror sites on various Let's Play videos.

Been a while since I played (7-8 years ago, still not as old as newest post before mine lol) but I recall being very pleasantly surprised. Bought the Gold version on Steam going just on a gut feeling and I can say today this game hit closest to home as for that original and fresh XCOM gameplay no game since Apocalypse offered (Xenonauts was a huge letdown for me). I used to frequent then active ufo-scene forum for advice and an occasional mod, which was a goldmine of good stuff. One thing I vividly remember from the game were personal shields. They enhanced combat so much because I always hated when solders died or spent time in recovery. Great game which I defo intend to play again.